I knew when I began the Outlook commentaries in the late ’70s that most potential clients trashed any brokerage firms’ boring one-page forecasts… The purpose of these introductory paragraphs has always been to liven up a somewhat unfathomable and inherently boring topic… I think some went too far, mentioning talking toilets or a fat baseball umpire who had just died of a heart attack that lost us the umpires’ association pension account. But on the whole, I made a name for myself and PIMCO as well, which was the objective.
—Bond King Bill Gross
In 1979, we moved into a Class-A high-rise office building… It was a strategic decision as I realized that clients were risking tens of millions of dollars in each of their developments. I believed that they would feel more comfortable working with an architect who understood business issues as opposed to the more typical artsy office most architects at the time presented.
— Carl McLarand, founder MVE
I remember waking up on Sept. 11, 2001… I wasn’t in that building because I had previously moved on. I knew many of the guys who were in those offices at that time. I watched as Tower Two collapsed. All I could picture was Herman Sandler and all my guys being up there. I still struggle with the feeling like being on top of the building collapsing – just sliding down, collapsing with the rest of the building, until finally those top floors hit the flames and the ground. A third of Sandler O’Neill’s 66 employees died on 9-11, including one of my dearest friends, Kenny. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about the guys I grew up with. They were a big part of my life.
— Genesis Bank founder Stephen Gordon
“You should not use indoor tanning beds, period. They are bad for your health. Most of their so-called health benefits are false promises… Tanning also accelerates the aging process. More importantly, current science tells us that a tan is the body’s response to biological damage on a cellular level. Artificial tanning is associated with the development of melanoma and other skin cancers.
— Dr. Steve Q. Wang, director of Dermatologic Oncology at Hoag Family Cancer Center
I can’t emphasize enough that valid goals for a startup do not include things like winning the Hottest Startup trophy from TechCrunch. In fact, those would be warning signs that you’re spending time on the wrong things. The two goals that anchored Anduril’s comms strategy were: (1) recruiting the best technical talent and (2) securing contracts with the U.S. military and its allies.
— Lulu Cheng Meservey, Anduril early communications director
My father left Vietnam in April 1975, the day before South Vietnam collapsed. He was a high-ranking naval officer in the South Vietnamese military and the Americans knew he would be a high risk capture. By 1978, he was in the United States. He got the idea of the beauty college after watching my mom make significantly more money as a beautician doing hair and nails than he did at his job.
The other reason he thought of the beauty college was because he was a volunteer for a nonprofit processing a lot of Vietnamese immigrants and saw a need for a transition job or vocation for them. He believed it was important to contribute back to the U.S.
— Tam Nguyen, chairman, Advance Beauty College
The excitement of football is unperilled as an entertaining sport to watch and play. Television doesn’t show everything that is going on, such as how as a safety I’d order our defense to shift in response to a receiver changing positions. The sport encapsulates our country in so many ways such as an element of violence, plenty of scoring, different action characters. Like the army, you put on uniforms and pads and go into battle. It’s a huge spectacle. It’s hard for me to find another sport that is as entertaining.
—Chris Conte, former NFL player
My father’s death when I was 17 rocked me to my core. It felt like my best friend, protector and defender was gone. I met a pastor and his wife, who helped me realize I would soon follow in my father’s footsteps and meet an early death if I didn’t get right with God. I let go of the weed and alcohol but letting go of the guy was more difficult. I was so afraid to be alone … After my third failed marriage, I finally knew I needed to take some time and be alone.
— Lynsi Snyder, owner, In-N-Out Burger
One case that left an especially tough impact on me was a drug related murder, where my client was alleged to have thrown another kid from a plane… I threw all sorts of doubt out there, most of which involved trashing the dead kid. I got an acquittal, and that seemed the end of it. Except three or four years later, somebody told me they ran into the father of the dead boy, and he despised me so much, saying he’d kill me in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it. I got a lot of death threats in those days, so another one wasn’t in and of itself a big deal but, maybe because the victim was so young, or because the father loved him so desperately, that one really hit me.
— Terry Giles, lawyer and founder of Giles-O’Malley
Center for Leadership at CSUF
In the surf industry, we always say authenticity cannot be bought – it must be earned. I think Walter Hoffman earned it many times over. Only a handful of people were the “mothers of invention” in the surf industry here in California. Walter and his family were among them. The man was truly a legend who left a huge mark on the surfing world.
—Shaheen Sadeghi, founder/CEO, LAB Holding LLC
It’s funny how everything can change in a single moment that, at the time, goes unrecognized. I ran into an old buddy of mine, Rex Frehner, and sold him an insurance policy. He was a friend from my earlier days in Vegas, who happened to be a dental technician… I took one look at what he was doing and I thought, “This is fascinating.” Here was the kind of work I loved.
— Jim Glidewell, founder, Glidewell Laboratories
Our customers were teenagers. How do you order something for them four to five months into the future? Our workforce was a big indicator. Your biggest fans are often your store employees. We watched them closely. Our employees were really engaged to help us identify trends. The best market researchers are your own store employees.
— Ed Thomas, former CEO, Wet Seal, Tilly’s
At seven years old, I got a job selling speakers with my uncle at the Anaheim swap meet. My uncle would play all the classic rock bands—Aerosmith, Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles—and by the time I was nine years old, I knew all the lyrics to every song and would sing for passersby.
— Matt Mauser, founder, Tijuana Dogs
They say you should never trust a skinny chef or a fat doctor. By this measure, you also shouldn’t trust a family law attorney who hasn’t been divorced. Guess what? I’ve been there. I’ve done the deed. I’ve personally experienced all the pain, the anger, the rage, the self-loathing, the doubts, the recriminations, the resentments, the second-guessing, the sleepless nights and the blessed relief that’s part and parcel of the divorce experience.
— Paul Nelson, founder, Nelson, Kirkman
I grew up in Pasadena where my father never wanted to camp out all night on New Year’s Eve to get a prime spot on the route for the Rose Parade. Instead, on New Year’s Day, he would buy a box of doughnuts and search for an overnight camper ready to make a deal. That’s how my two siblings and I often got curbside seats to the parade.
— Greg Custer, head of Newport Beach office, Whittier Trust